[Often overlooked: social factors in chronic pain : Development and use of a questionnaire on social stressors in people with chronic pain].

backgroundAlthough social stress factors are common in people with chronic pain, they are often not recorded or treated. AIM OF THE STUDY: A questionnaire developed by us on the presence of social stress factors is to be examined for its correlation with the questions commonly used in pain questionnaires (regularly completed in advance). MATERIALS AND

methodsThe available data sets were collected between November 2017 and October 2018. The primary aim of using the questionnaire was to test its practicality in everyday clinical practice and its acceptance among patients. A total of 122 questionnaires on the presence of social stress factors were used for the evaluation, together with the pain questionnaire.

resultsThe elements of the pain questionnaire showed varying degrees of correlation with the total score for social stressors. Significant correlations with high significance were found in both univariate and multivariate regression analysis for the Chronic Pain Grading Scale according to von Korff and for the questionnaire on habitual well-being. DISCUSSION: The presence of social stress factors cannot be predicted by the parameters of the pain questionnaire alone, although clear correlations are evident in some cases. Social aspects receive too little attention both in assessment and in therapy itself in multidisciplinary pain treatment facilities, even though the role of social factors as an independent and equivalent factor in the development of chronic pain has been proven. This questionnaire serves as a screening tool and, to our knowledge, is the first questionnaire for assessing social stress factors in patients with chronic pain in German-speaking countries.